American School

The American School was an American economic policy that was implemented to various degrees from the 1860s to the 1970s. It was a macroeconomic philosophy that supported the protection of industry through high tariffs and subsidies, government investments in infrastructural "internal improvements" (especially in transportation), and the creation of a national bank with policies to promote the growth of productive enterprises rather than speculation. The American School represented the legacy of Alexander Hamilton, who pushed for American self-sufficiency in all necessary economic products, and it was advocated by John Quincy Adams' National Republican Party, Henry Clay's Whigs, and Abraham Lincoln's early Republican Party. The system allowed foor the American economy to surpass that of the British Empire during the 1880s. The system would be implemented to various degrees until the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon cut tariffs to all-time lows, ended the New Deal orientation towards reciprocity and subsidy, and moved the USA in a free market direction.